Author(s): Ian M Evans & Shane T Harvey
A warm classroom climate enhances the learning and social behaviour of primary (elementary) school children. But how can a busy teacher create such a positive emotional atmosphere? Evans and Harvey, from the School of Psychology, Massey University, supported by a diverse team of experienced educators in New Zealand schools, propose a model of teachers’ emotional characteristics that can be readily individualised for different teaching styles. They describe a programme of research on how to create natural, positive teacher–pupil relationships and classroom environments that motivate children, allow them to feel accepted, ensure learning enjoyment, and facilitate social-emotional development. This is a thought-provoking guide for teachers who seek to provide the optimal learning environment for children. It offers: evidence-based insights into necessary positive teacher–pupil relationships draws on the views of many exemplary New Zealand primary teachers presents a new model of “warm” classroom climate provides a culturally sensitive approach, recognising the skills and value of both Māori and Pākehā teachers
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REVIEW
Reviewed By:
Dr Elizabeth Schaughency, Department of Psychology,
University of Otago
New Zealand Journal of Psychology Vol. 42, No. 1, 2013
The topic of this book is of importance
to all professionals who work with
children. Development and problems
in development involve transactions
and interactions of individuals with
others in social contexts (Keogh,
1998; Prinstein & Roberts, 2006).
Psychologists have long considered
parents to be important socialisation
agents, yet research documenting links
between child functioning and other
social contexts argue for broadened
perspectives that include peer and school
environments (Pianta, 2006; Walker,
2010). For psychologists who serve
children, recognition of the association
of childhood difficulties with problems
at school or with peers is not new, a
finding often conceptualised to indicate
impairment in children’s functioning.
Whereas difficulties at school may
be viewed from the perspective that
psychological symptoms affect personcontext
transactions, Evans and Harvey
(2012) urge readers to also consider the
other directional hypothesis, i.e., the
person-context transactions children
experience in their primary school
classrooms may affect their socioemotional
functioning and development.
Moreover, the authors contend,
considering this possibility presents
opportunities for nurturing children’s
positive adaptation by ‘warming the
emotional climate of primary school
classroom’.
This text embodies the convergence
of two lines of scholarship for Evans,
expertise in clinical child psychology
(Evans, 1999) and interests in promoting
contextually and culturally relevant
research by and for psychologists in
Aotearoa New Zealand (Evans, 2008;
Evans & Fitzgerald, 2007). The text
also represents a collaborative effort.
The collaboration between Evans,
an academic clinical psychologist,
and Harvey, who has worked as
an educational psychologist, is in
keeping with the perspective that
better understanding and improving
the realities of children are common
aims for child-oriented psychologists
working within sub-disciplines of
psychology (Power, 2003; Schaughency
& Ervin, 2006), with intra- and interdisciplinary
collaboration specifically
advocated as a means to better serve
children in Aotearoa New Zealand
(France, Annan, Tarren-Sweeney &
Butler, 2007).
In many ways the research
described in the text is an exemplar for
psychologists working in Aotearoa New
Zealand, in keeping with guidelines for
the professional practice of psychology
in Aotearoa New Zealand. Our
Core Competencies indicate that (a)
scientific evidence should guide our
work but (b) we should also have the
skill to evaluate whether research is
applicable in the New Zealand context
(New Zealand Psychologists Board,
2006, p. 4). Arguably, the best way to
evaluate whether research fits the local
context is to conduct research within
that context (Schaughency & Ervin,
2006), with the research on which this
book is based conducted in the southcentral
North Island. Moreover, our
Competencies remind psychologists
working in Aotearoa New Zealand of our
obligations to be mindful of diversity,
culture, and, particularly, partners
of Te Tiriti o Waitangi/the Treaty of
Waitangi. Specific recommendations
provided by the Competencies are to
include others in data collection and
analysis and consult with culturally
knowledgeable people (p. 5). To
begin to describe emotional climate
in primary school classrooms, the
authors first sought input from teachers
considered to create positive emotional
atmospheres in their classrooms, which
resulted in a sample of approximately
equal numbers of teachers described
of Māori (45%) and European (55%)
descent in an area in which only 5% of
teachers are reported to be Māori (Evans
& Harvey, 2012, p. 70). To further
evaluate bicultural acceptability and
relevance of their model of emotional
climate for Māori teachers, Evans and
Harvey partnered with Herbert, a Māori
psychologist (Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti
Paretekawa), who engaged a group of
Māori participants with educational
and cultural expertise (p. 102). Finally,
the aim of text to serve a resource for
enhancing the classroom climate and,
thereby, children’s positive adaptation is
in keeping with competency guidelines
to identify contextual factors that
provide opportunities for positive
change (New Zealand Psychologist’s
Board,2006, p. 7) and build solutions
based on positive supports existing in
the environment (p. 8), to name a few.
Trying to demystify hazy, but nonethe-
less real and important, constructs
such as climate is a formidable task,
especially when the end is to promote
change (enhancing climate and child
adaptation). For those working to
facilitate positive change in complex
social systems like classrooms in
schools, conceptual clarity may help
psychologists or other change agents
to formulate and develop intervention
plans or programme development
efforts (Ervin & Schaughency,
2008; Schaughency & Ervin, 2006).
Organisational researchers find it
useful to distinguish between concepts
referring to the way things are done in an
organisational setting (culture; Glisson,
Dukes & Green, 2006) and the positive
or negative impact of the environment
on psychological well-being (climate;
Glisson & Green, 2006). Although
these are distinguishable constructs,
research also suggests that they are
inter-related, with both contributing
to service delivery and children’s
outcomes (Glisson et al., 2006; Glisson
& Green, 2006). Clarity in level of
analysis can likewise assist formulation
and planning (Ervin & Schaughency,
2008; Schaughency & Ervin, 2006).
What is the organisational setting
you are targeting? Is it the culture of
a particular classroom or a broader
organisational level, such as a syndicate
or school? If you are interested in
the subjective experience of climate,
climate as experienced by whom? Is it
the teacher or a student in a class? As
an individual psychological variable, the
experienced climate may not be shared
by all persons in that setting (students in
a class; teachers in a school) but when
individuals share similar perceptions
of the impact of the environment on
well-being, results may be aggregated
to describe climate at group (e.g., class)
or organisational (e.g., school) levels
(Glisson, 2002).
In closing, a recurrent theme
throughout this review has been that
‘warming the primary classroom’ may
foster children’s positive adaptation.
The term positive adaptation was
used to acknowledge the dual nature
of positive development from a
psychological perspective: internal
functioning (subjective well-being)
and environmental functioning
(effective performance in age-salient
developmental tasks) (Masten & Motti-
Stefanidi, 2009). Although the terms
used in school-based research vary,
with researchers sometimes using terms
like engagement or connectedness,
evidence is accumulating to indicate
that children’s subjective experience
of school matters, with important
relations to academic (Reyes, Brackett,
Rivers, White, & Salovey, 2012),
mental health (Bond, Butler, Thomas,
Carlin, Glover, Bowes, & Patton,
2007) and health (Carter, McGee,
Taylor, & Williams, 2007) outcomes for
children and adolescents. Such findings
highlight the significance of efforts
to better understand and ultimately
enhance the developmental context of
schooling, such as those described in
by Evans and Harvey (2012), for all
psychologists who work with children
and young people.
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